Europeans settle Ryder Cup team this week

U.S. players can't help wondering who will make it

Kathy BissellSpecial to The Record

Published Wednesday, August 29, 2001

"Next week is going to be very tough for the guys playing in the BMW and trying to make the team," Darren Clarke, European money leader said last week at the NEC/WGC event at Firestone CC. The BMW, which starts Thursday, is the last tournament where European players can earn Ryder Cup points. With so many of their players joining the PGA Tour, it is a problem for the European squad. The Spaniards, Sergio Garcia (19), Jose Maria Olazabal (18) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (11), are out of the top 10, and Jesper Parnevik isn't even in the top 20.

Even the U.S. team members are curious about the outcome as Colin Montgomerie discovered while playing with Davis Love III last week. "Davis is asking about our selections," Montgomerie said. "Who Sam is thinking about and what have you."

The problem for European captain Sam Torrance is that he only gets two picks. While most believe he will select Garcia and Parnevik, there are other considerations. Garcia and Parnevik were an outstanding duo in 1999 at The Country Club, but Olazabal is fourth on Europe's all time matches won list and has the second best won/loss record of anyone in Ryder Cup history, a 62 percent victory rate. How does he not pick Olazabal who has a European victory this season? Unfortunately for Torrance, Parnevik won the Honda Classic, and Garcia won at Colonial and at the Buick Classic. As the British say, it is a spot of bother.

Torrance already has four rookies on the team in Pierre Fulke, Niclas Fasth, Paul McGinley and Phillip Price. Bernard Langer is hanging on to the ninth position. At third on the all-time points list for Europe, he is an asset to the team.

"It's a lot of pressure, playing for your country," Langer said about Ryder Cup play. " You are playing for your country; you are not playing for yourself. It is a different kettle of fish."

He should know. He's been in one of the most pressure packed moments in Ryder Cup history, missing a six-footer to give victory to the U.S. in 1991, and sealing victory for the Europeans in winning a 3 and 2 match against Brad Faxon to give Europe the 14th point in 1997 at Valderrama, which meant they could not lose the Cup.

Langer's putt at Kiawah Island was one of the most intense situations he has faced. Had he won the final hole, he would have won a point and Europe would have retained the Ryder Cup because the sides would have tied. When he missed a par putt and tied the hole with Hale Irwin, who had already bogeyed, they halved the hole, and the U.S. won the Ryder cup by that slim half point.

"It was certainly right up there, yes, certainly the last four or five holes when pretty much everyone else was kind of done," he explained.

"We were last out and the other matches in front of us kind of finished a little bit earlier, lost 3-2 or something like that. We had four holes to go, three, and it was pretty obvious what needed to be done."

Yet most players on both sides of the Atlantic treasure the experience.

" It's just a great championship. It's a great match, something to look forward to, something to enjoy," Langer noted, despite some of the rowdiness that has accompanied the increased popularity of the contest.

One reason the Ryder Cup floated to the front of sports pages was that the U.S. lost in 1985 when this year's European captain, Sam Torrance, sealed victory with a match-winning putt against Andy North. Losing was a shock, because the U.S. had dominated since the event's creation in 1927.

"I think it was always a very important match for the Europeans," Langer explained, "but I think it really grew over here once they started losing because they are not used to losing. They don't like losing. America is all about winning and winners. And all of a sudden, they lost a couple and the Ryder Cup became bigger and bigger because they weren't used to it." The U.S. team lost in 1985, 1987 and tied in 1989, which meant Europe kept the trophy for eight years in a row until 1991.

With Langer on the bubble in ninth position, Garcia and Olazabal sitting between tenth and 20th, and Parnevik so low somebody needs to send out rescue divers to find him, the big question has become, do the Europeans need to change their selection process again.

There has never been just one way to assemble a team. Europeans have done everything from taking simply the top twelve from their money list to taking the top nine and picking three to the current method of taking the top ten and picking two.

From 1985 through 1993, their captain had three choices. In those years, they won or retained the Ryder Cup three of the five times the event was played.

Sam Torrance will have to make his final decision at the end of this week. Who can he send to tame Team Tiger?

Either the Europeans aren't worried about the outcome, or they are acting like they aren't.

"I think the side looks very good at the moment. I don't really think it matters who gets there," Darren Clarke said.

"It used to be where we had six good players and then we were struggling to make up the spots. That's not happening anymore," Langer explained." You can take any of the top 20 or 30 players and put them in there and they would all do well."